1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill sterilizer, and more particularly, to a bill sterilizer equipped with a counting machine which sterilizes bills through cluster negative ions after the whole counting machine for counting the number of the bills is located inside the bill sterilizer, thereby removing pollution sources of the bills.
2. Background Art
Money is the most fundamental value means which is the basis of the economic structure and has widely run current through bills and coins since ancient times.
Bills are polluted from various pollutants, such as bacteria and dust, more easily than coins while passing lots of distribution channels, and hence, are responsible for spreading bacteria of users who use the bills.
Moreover, bills run current from hand to hand rather than are stored in one place for a long time and are polluted by various bacteria or pathogenic microorganisms in the process and thus serve as the medium that causes or transmits various skin diseases, respiratory diseases and allergic diseases. Therefore, the elderly and young children with weak immune systems may get diseases and persons who handle bills in banks or other financial institutions may be damaged.
In the meantime, bank clerks use bill counting machines because must rapidly calculate and treat the number of lots of bills in banks. Such bill counting machines for calculating the number of bills have a disadvantage in that they cannot sterilize pollutants, such as various bacteria and dust, stained on the bills.
The bill counting machines are divided into various kinds according to methods for counting bills, and most of the bill counting machines calculate the number of moving bills by a sensor while moving bills put on a bill receiver one by one.
The calculated bills are handed to the market again, and are exposed to and polluted by various pollution sources while passing through various hands in various environment so that various bacteria always grow on the surfaces of the bills. The polluted bills become a cause to spread bacteria to many people while passing through various hands.
In order to solve the problem, technology for sterilizing bills has been disclosed.
As one example, Korean Patent No. 10-0423025 published on Mar. 18, 2004 discloses a “bill sterilizing apparatus”.
The bill sterilizing apparatus includes: a tray type bill holding unit, on which bills are put, to count and sterilize the bills; a single-sheet feeding unit for conveying the bills put on the bill holder one by one; a bill conveying unit which has a plurality of roller for conveying the bills inserted from the single-sheet feeder and a motor for generating a driving force; a sterilizing unit which has a sprayer for receiving disinfectant from a disinfectant reservoir and spraying the disinfectant onto the bills in order to sterilize the bills conveyed by the bill conveying unit; a drying unit for drying the bills sterilized by the sterilizer; a scent supplier for spraying scent onto the bills passing the drier; a bill holding unit for holding the bills passing the scent supplier; a bill counting unit for detecting the bills and counting the number of the bills while the bills are conveyed by the bill conveying unit; and a controller which has a control circuit for controlling the units and displaying the counted number.
As another example, there is Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0330878 published on Feb. 14, 2004 entitled a “sterilizing apparatus for counted bills”.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0330878 relates to a sterilizing apparatus for counted bills which can count, sterilize and disinfect bills at the same time.
That is, the sterilizing apparatus for counted bills includes: a bill counter; an outer case on which the bill counter is mounted; a chemical container which is located inside the outer case and is filled with a disinfectant solution and an air refresher; an electronic valve for controlling outflow of the chemicals; a nozzle for spraying the chemicals; and a connection tube extending from the chemical container to the nozzle. The nozzle is located at an end portion of the connection tube and is connected to a flexible connection tube which is adjustable in position to sterilize the counted bills before they are stacked up.
Furthermore, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0464741 discloses a “sterilized bill counting machine” published on Jan. 21, 2013.
The sterilized bill counting machine includes a conveyer for conveying bills put thereinto and UV sterilizing lamps mounted to sterilize the bills. The UV lamps are located at an upper portion and a lower portion of the conveyer and are spaced apart from each other at an interval of 1 mm to 2 mm. The UV lamp has an arc-shaped reflector mounted on the outer circumference thereof to intensively irradiate ultraviolet rays onto the bills. In this instance, the two 11-watt UV lamps are respectively mounted at the upper portion and the lower portion of the conveyer, and the reflector of the UV lamp forms an arc-shaped part which is bent upwardly at the side where the bills are put in so as to prevent the bills from being caught to the reflector when being put in.